Most compelling is that if you want your glazes (typically) to look good, seiving assures that. Consistency.

best,

.......................john

Dear All,

I totally agree with all that has been said. Grit. Lumps that somehow get into the glaze and you don't notice them until they are smack gob on the middle of your pot after firing. When at all possible I like to seive before I dip or pour. Then I gently review the piece looking for little air bubbles. I smooth these out as well. Any cracks in the glaze from big gobs I scrape off and start again.

And I think the taliman seive is a great invention. I recall the days we painted glazed through seives with brush. It was hard work. If you don't have one a talisman is great for the initial mixing. I used the wire strainers you can get from the dollar store when it comes to seiving smaller amounts.

yep. lumps. Ugly white ones. I was a guest artist at a center recently and used the center's glaze as part of prepping for a firing demo. it was not sieved. Got awful lumps on a very large bowl.
I tried refiring it when I got home but you can't cover up those lumps.
Marcia

Not just lumps, but general distribution of ingredients. You can get streakiness, blotchiness, color variation... or even faults like crawling in some cases.

I once skipped the sieve step with a glaze that was heavy on the copper oxide (just wielded the mixer like madman). It looked OK in the bucket, but gave the most oddball, variegated effects I'd ever seem. Not even displeasing... but totally unpredictable.

Can''t imagine making glazes without sieves, I have a small one for test glazes and a bowl type for larger batches. The larger one is about 30 year old and is starting to wear out I keep patching it with silicone. I'm turning 60 Monday so I think I'm going to treat myself and order a talisman. Denice

I sieve all of my glazes every time I go to glaze. I sieve first through an 80 mesh sieve, wash the 5 gallon bucket, then sieve the glaze back into the original bucket through a 100 mesh sieve.
If you don't sieve, you have lumps and inconsistency of texture.
Go buy a sieve.I can't believe I used the word sieve eight times.
TJR.

I sieve all of my glazes every time I go to glaze. I sieve first through an 80 mesh sieve, wash the 5 gallon bucket, then sieve the glaze back into the original bucket through a 100 mesh sieve.
If you don't sieve, you have lumps and inconsistency of texture.
Go buy a sieve.I can't believe I used the word sieve eight times.
TJR.

Talisman 80 mesh for me-everything goes thru it and all is well afterwards.I have all the screen sizes but long ago found the 80 to be enough for 99.9% of needs-now after wearing out 3 of them its still true.The big labor savers are when clay is your livelihood pre made claypower wheelTalisman sievePower mixer for glazescar kilnelectric slab rollerI wish I had them all when I was younger-or at least my body does.Mark

If a glaze hasn't been used in awhile, it should be sieved before using because ingredients tend to clump and lump if left undisturbed. I was laughed at for sieving my raku glazes ( I guess because so many of them are made using borax) but running the glaze through a screen mixes everything well, and if there are small particles (usually crystalline) I use the last of the mixing water to rinse them back into the mix, so I lose nothing.